Sicily · 8th century BCE
Motya
Mṭw
The lagoon city
An island in the Stagnone, west of Sicily, facing what is now Marsala. Tyre’s people built it as they built Tyre: a rock in the water, a causeway at need, a harbor the mainland could not drink. Dionysius of Syracuse took it in 397 before the common era and meant the taking to be the end. The survivors crossed to Lilybaeum. The lagoon still holds the island. The Punic street is still a street.
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